


黄色悪魔

by Guardian_of_the_4th_Wall



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-14 20:32:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16048040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Guardian_of_the_4th_Wall/pseuds/Guardian_of_the_4th_Wall
Summary: Victorian Era 1800s. The Queen's special task force summoned a demon. But he wasn't what they were expecting. Now they have a year to teach this monster to be the demon they need or the repercussions will lie on them. Meanwhile they still have to their jobs which is the Queens dirty work. They're assassins, killers, torturers, nobles and now they can add teacher to the list.





	1. Intro

His vision was blurred, and his limbs ached. His many many limbs. Was he supposed to have this many? He wasn't sure. He brought his hand up to his face, but what he was staring at didn't look like a hand. His head hurt. Where was he? Their wasn't much light in this place... What was going on?

"Perfect." He turned to look in the direction of the voice.

A man dressed in all white had walked up to him.

"We finally did it, we summoned a demon!"

Their was a small cough and he turned his head in it's direction. It was then he noticed their were many bodies around him and they were all laying on drawn glowing marks on the floor. The one who had coughed had pink divided into long strands. She coughed again, and it was this time that he noticed she was coughing up blood.

Is she ok? He wondered. And he tried to reach out to her but the man in white called his attention again.

"Stand demon!" he demanded.

Is he talking to me? He wondered. Am I a demon?

"I said stand! I am your Master!" the man yelled. He revealed the palm of his hand which had some strange yellow mark on it.

He didn't know what it was supposed to be, but he wanted him to stand? He could do that. Somewhat weakly, he sat up and the full picture met his gaze. He was on a podium, and lying around him were a number of bodies. These children were chained by the neck to a bolt in the floor and they were all lying on the ground as if they had been injured. But other than the pink haired girl, no one had physical signs of injury. He noticed some of them were unconscious other's barely awake, a few were forcing themselves to look up at him. Beyond them were a number of people dressed in fancy clothes and wearing masks but you could hardly see them. What was going on.

"DEMON!" he turned back to the man in white who was sounding impatient now. "Stand, show them your power."

Power? Did he have power? He slid off the podium on to his feet. Only he didn't seem to have feet, he immediately slipped on them and fell to the ground. He blinked up at the child he had fallen in front of. Blue hair, he had pulled himself up onto his knees, and he was holding the chain attached to the metal collar around his neck. He was stairing down at him looking disbelieving.

Then suddenly their was an eruption of laughter from the masked beings.

He didn't have the strength to get up and didn't have the capacity to realize they were laughing at him.

"Stop it!" the man in white snapped at the crowd. "This a demon! A genuine demon! Don't you understand what this means?"

The girl from before coughed again and the blue haired boy's attention was pulled to her. He was looking worried...

"Ritsu..." he whispered.

A red haired boy beside him was staring over at her as well.

"Kaede, you're closest," called a blond girl he could only just see out of the corner of his eye. He didn't even have enough strength to turn his head. But he sensed the tension from the children even amongst the laugher and the man in white's yelling to convince them he was strong.

The sound of a chain moving across the stone floor and a moment later they heard.

"She's dead."

He watched the faces of the children within' his view fall. The blue haired boy covered him mouth seemingly to stop himself from screaming a few of the other children burst into tears and the wails of others made his heart feel heavy. They were sad. Why did she die...

"You didn't summon a demon pal, you summoned an octopus. I could do the same thing down at the docks!" shouted one heckler.

"Shut up!" the man in white demanded. "We'll try again. We'll summon another one!"

"We've already lost one of us!" the blue haired boy glared up at him. "If you do that-"

He kicked the child's right in the face knocking him back to the floor. "You shut up especially," he spun around and spoke to someone he couldn't see. "Again! Get it ready!"

"Nagisa," the red haired boy reached over to him, the other was shaking as he pulled himself back up to his knees. The chain was so short that it wouldn't allow him to stand.

"Karma," he panted. "We're not going to survive another summoning..."

By the seriousness on is face, he seemed to have already understood that.

"Kill this one so we can start over," the man in white demanded of a man in the shadows who who started to load his gun.

"Shiro..." Karma called to the man in white. Looking annoyed he walked over to him.

"What?!" he snapped.

"Theirs no need to kill him. Just tell the nice cultists that within' a year you're going to have an incredible demon to display."

"Excuse me?"

"If you summon another one, what's the chance it's going to come out any stronger than this lump of mush?" he asked. He seemed out of breath but was trying hard not to show it. "Meanwhile, you'll lose most if not all of us on that next go around. Feed them some crap on how the demon will need food or sacrifices or some shit to make him strong. Make up anything, and we'll make your demon worthwhile."

"You think you can?"

"I don't think, I know," Karma retorted. Keeping his smug expression even in his weakened state.

"Hhmmm..." he suddenly raised his voice. "I just don't know what went wrong. What could it be?"

He walked out of his view but he could hear him flipping through the pages in some book.

The blue haired boy turned to him. He must have looked scared because the boy whispered to him, "You're okay, don't worry."

"Ah! I see now... The demon summoned from the corpse of Jack the Ripper, empowered by the vitality and youth of the young, requires more to make him complete! Souls. Many souls. Ladies and gentlemen, it'll take a year, but in that amount of time I will have a demon to show you that no one will deny."

"Yeah right," called some of them laughing.

"Check in on the creature whenever you wish, and you will see his strength increase. Imagine being in the possession of a creature who can vanquish any enemy you have. Just you wait..."

"I'll believe that, when I see it," shouted one man getting to his feet. "In a year then."

With that he turned to leave, and everyone began to follow suit.

Shiro stepped down from the stage and was stopped by a man in a parrot mask. "Are any of those kids for sale?"

"Their skills only, they're powerful in their own rights, each like a mini demon themselves."

"I'm not necessarily wishing to employ their skills, more so, wishing to exploit their features," he looked up at Nagisa when he said that, and Nagisa turned away from him looking disgusted, he grasped the cold chain at his neck looking furious.

The creature laid there listening to all this. He didn't understand what was going on at all...

A few minutes later the man in white had returned holding a key and he started unlocking the chains pinning the children down. As soon as each one was free they rushed over to the pink haired girl. He had to roll over to watch them all gathered around her. Many of them were still crying.

"Well," Shiro exhaled. "That was a tragedy. But... we got something much more valuable from her loss. You all have one year to make this creature into something useable for the Queen. In the meantime, I still expect you all to be doing your jobs."

With that he left, leaving the children and the creature alone in the stone basement room.

"We'll bury her properly, at home," Nagisa pointed out to them and those who were still crying dried their tears.

"What about the blob."

"He's coming with us obviously," Karma walked over and started to lift it up. "Damn this things heavy. Terasaka get over here."

"Ugh, yeah fine," he walked over helping Karma lift him.

Isogai took Ritsu in his arms, "It's strange... Dead bodies are always so much heavier than living ones..."

"Let's go home," Nagisa started heading towards the exit. "Those of you who live farther away can stay at my manor for tonight."

"Besides that, we have to bury her," Kaede pointed out too.

The creature could move his head but not much else. He watched them walk around around him and a tense silenced filled every nook and cranny of the place. They were all wearing the same outfit. A white shirt and pair of pants, as they reached the exit they all grabbed black robes that were near the door. Kaede took Ritsu's and draped it over her body.

He didn't understand any of this and he had no memories to reference. As soon as he would see something it was like his mind instantly knew what it was without it being explained, but he found he couldn't picture anything except what he had already seen in this room. Looking at the people around him, he knew some of them were boys, and some were girls, and he knew they were young. They were the small version of the man in white and the crowd that had been there.

That girl had died too, and seeing the reaction of the children, death was a sad thing. An unwanted thing and directly from them he felt saddened because that was what you're supposed to feel when someone dies. He learned that from them.

"Is this thing crying?" Toka asked. They had set him down to pull on the robes, and Nagisa walked over to him kneeling next to him.

"You're okay," he said patting his limb softly.

"What the hell does he have to cry about?" Terasaka snapped.

"He probably doesn't know what's going on. Anyone would be scared," Nagisa explained frowning.

"Scared," Teraska walked over to him grabbing the color of his robe he spun him around. "All of this was to get a power beast from hell, an unstoppable weapon and all we got was this nasty sack of crying mush!"

"And what am I supposed to do about that? Something clearly went wrong."

"Something clearly went wrong," he mimicked Nagisa's voice in a mocking way. "Of course it did, Ritsu is dead!"

Terasaka shook him looking pissed.

"Stop, this isn't anyone's fault. It's not like Nagisa suggested any of this, the Queen says jump, we say how high!" Kaede snapped and pushed Terasaaka away from him.

"Tsk... And just what are we supposed to do about the creature? How we going to turn this sack of shit into anything..." Looking up at Terasaka he added. "We're all exhausted, we're all angry, we're all not thinking straight. Let's just go back to the manor and sleep this off. Tomorrow we'll discuss what to do about the creature.""Whatever, but I'm not carrying him..." He walked off to the side leaning up against the wall.

"Are you okay my Lady?" Kaede asked turning to Nagisa she looked worried.

"I'm fine, don't worry. Let's just go."

Sugaya went to help Karma carry the creature in Terasaka's place. They all had their robes on now except...

Itona was towards the back of the crowd as they were heading out. He heard footsteps behind him and when he turned he saw Hazama hurried back up to them. She quickly grabbed the last robe hanging up and wrapped it around herself. Even though she had tried to do it quick, Itona had noticed. "Were you injured?"

Their had been blood on the bottom of her shirt before she covered it up with the robe.

"No, I just wanted to make sure I got some of Ritsu's blood for my experiments," she explained.

"Isn't that kinda disrespectful?"

"I'm the Undertaker's apprentice, I think I know more about what does or doesn't disrespect the dead than you," she explained hurrying out to the carriages waiting outside."

"Itona," Teraska walked over to him. "We got drivers for all but the last carriage, did you want to drive?"

"Sure," he answered he started heading towards the carriage only be stopped when Terasaka put a hand on his shoulder.

"Look at you, you look more out of it than me. Never mind, get in back," he demanded before cutting ahead of him he climbed up in the diver's seat of the carriage.

But instead Itona climbed up next to him. "I'll take over if you get to tired."

"You're in no condition to be up here," he snapped.

"Nevermind just go..."

Itona looked really pale. The ceremony had affected him more than he was letting on, but Terasaka was too tired to argue. He snapped the reins heading off after the other carriages which had already started on their way.

* * *

It took an hour and a half to get back to Nagisa's manor. It was located off the main city back in the woods. A good number of them lived here, and those who didn't would often visit. The manor was their base of operations after all, where they served the Queen in the shadows performing the tasks she couldn't ask of the police.

The demon noticed something interesting. The children were exhausted, both mentally and physically at their limit. But, they immediately set to work upon arriving home. Some of them gathered lanterns, a few of the girls took Ritsu's body to be cleaned. Many of the boys took up shovels and started digging by the light of the lantern. Terasaka and Itona had grabbed wooden planks from the barn and seemed to be making a large box. The sound of hammering, shovels scooping dirt, and the occasional huff from the children working so diligently were the only sounds piercing the night.

Eventually, the body was carried back, wrapped in a black cloth it was placed in the box they had just constructed, and then a lid was placed on top. A few of the girls had started crying again as the lid was nailed shut.

The hole they dug was so deep that those working on it had to be pulled out just to climb out of the hole.

Then using ropes they lowered the crate into the ground.

One the girls came from inside the house and handed them all a flower from a bouquet and one by one they stood in front of the hole. Some saying a few words, others just taking a moment of silence before they threw the flower in.

He couldn't hear what they were saying, he had been left in one of the carriages. But he understood that they were saying their goodbyes. When the last one of them had died threw their flowers into the hole a few of them stayed behind to cover it up, and the rest of them headed into the house.

When the last task was done four of them came over to the carriage where he was at and opened the door.

He had moved himself to a leaning position against the window staring out at them, so when they opened the door he slumped over falling onto the ground.

"Ugh," Terasaka sighed.

"Let's get him inside, he can stay in the attic until we figure out something else to do with him," Nagisa explained.

"Get over here Terasaka," Karma demanded leaning down he started to lift him.

"I already told you, I'm not carrying the thing that killed Ritsu..."

Karma let the limb he was holding fall and he walked over grabbing Terasaka's face in his hands, "I'm really pissed off and very tired, so I don't have the patience to put up with your shit tonight. But I mean, Itona looks like he can barely stand up right now. But if you would rather I get him to do it, then-"

Terasaka knocked his hand away, "Whatever just hurry up!"

He turned to Itona, "Go get some sleep, we got this."

"You sure?"

"Don't make me repeat myself, just go already," Teraska leaned down grabbing one end o the creature and Karma took the other. Nagisa held the door open for them and they brought him into the manor. Everyone seemed to have collapsed on whatever peice of furniture they could find and were already asleep. As they went up the stairs their were a few open doors and he saw more people sleeping in there. Three flights of stairs later Nagisa opened the door to the attic and he was plopped onto a pile of blankets.

"Alright, I'm going to bed," Terasaka grabbed a blanket and immediately left.

"The creature's going to need to be watched. I'll stay up here with it," Karma explained.

"Alright, goodnight," Nagisa left closing the door behind him. As soon as his foot prints died away Karma walked over to the wall and slammed his fist into it.

"Damn him!" he snapped. "Damn him! I knew she wasn't strong enough! I knew it!"

He hit the wall again full force before turning his back to it he slid down to the floor. His fist was swollen and bleeding now and the demon could tell he was angry.

"Ritsu died for you," Karma said glaring in his direction. "She died so you could be here... If I catch you slacking in your training at all, I'll kill you myself."

He leaned his head back looking up at the ceiling, "Damn it why did this have to happen..."

* * *

Nagisa opened the door to his bedroom. He walked by his open closet full of the many gowns he would wear, gowns befitting his station of Countess.

His bed was unnecessarily huge and it was plush, filled with feathers, made of silk. He didn't even have the strength to change and get into bed. He collapsed on the bed and was asleep almost immediately.

* * *

"Where did he go?" Terasaka snapped. He had looked around for Itona and then it suddenly hit him where he probably was. He trudged out to the barn and sure enough he found Itona asleep on a haystack.

"You could have slept in the house you idiot," he frowned and took the blanket he had grabbed and threw it over him before falling onto the hay beside him he fell asleep too.

This would have been an absolutely perfect time for an enemy to attack. Their was no way any of them could put up a decent fight in their condition, but lucky for them they weren't attacked by anyone tonight.

Back up in the attic the creature sat staring at the ceiling. Karma had slumped over and fallen asleep on the floor. He still didn't know why he had been summoned, and he didn't know what or who he was. The sun was starting to rise. So, it seemed he could be tired but he likely did not need this, sleep, that the children seemed overtaken by, so he sat and waited for them to wake up.

At some point throughout the course of the night a mark appeared on their bodies in various place. Yellow complicated pentagrams. It was yet another thing that would have to be dealt with int he morning.


	2. Tea Party

The sun was high in the sky before Nagisa woke up, and his whole body ached. Though, his physical pain had nothing on the realization that Ritsu was gone. She was very liked among their group and everyone cared and looked after her. It was like she was everyone's cherished little sister. In reality they all looked after each other, they had to with the kind of existence they were living. But everyone had people they were closer to than others. Terasaka and Itona for example. He and Karma were close too, but... that deepened on the day really. Rinka and Ryūnosuke were always together and knew everything about one another. So much so, they were almost in perfect sync when they would fight. But Ritsu. She was close to everyone, even Karma and Terasaka who were probably the two hardest to get close to.

Everything hurt, but why did something... burn? He walked over to his mirror and lifted his shirt. On the right side of his lower stomach a pentagram mark that looked as though it had been burned into his skin with a hot iron. Only, it looked old, like this had happened a year ago. But he hadn't had this mark yesterday...

Ugh, who cares...

He walked upstairs. His manor was never this quiet, which told him no one else was awake. Slowly he opened the door to the attic.

Karma was asleep in the corner. It wasn't like him to sleep this late. He was normally a morning person. He looked over at the creature who hadn't moved much from the previous night.

"So," Nagisa walked over to him. "Can you talk?"

"..."

"I'll take that as a no," Nagisa frowned. "Are you hungry? You eat... right?"

The creature shook his head excitedly.

"Great," Nagisa turned to Karma. "Give me a bit and I'll have Muramatsu make something for us... If he's up to it."

He added the last part knowing he didn't know how he was feeling this morning so couldn't guarantee he would be up to cooking.

"Karma," Nagisa whispered running the back of his fingers softly down Karma's cheek.

He took a deep breath before opening his eyes. "Morning already?"

"More like, the days almost over already," Nagisa explained. "What happened to your hand?"

It was swollen and bleeding slightly on the knuckles. "Huh? must of hurt it when I was digging last night. Oh well..."

He pulled himself to his feet. I'm going to check the grave and make sure it's cleaned up," he explained. "Think we can leave the Demon alone for a bit?"

"I don't think he can move very much, but I promised him food, so I'm going to focus on that."

"Alright," Karma turned and headed downstairs.

The creature watched Nagisa who was staring after the other one. He continued staring long after Karma was gone, and then, he placed a finger on the wall throwing a small glance back at him before heading downstairs himself.

the demon looked at the wall and realized, he pointed at the exact spot on the Wall which Karma had punched the night before. The wall wasn't damaged. So how had he... Then he saw a small bit of blood on the wall. It would not have been noticed by any normal person.

These kids were so interesting. But... He looked down at his hands. He knew nothing about himself, he had no memories to pull from, and he was weak. He had all these thoughts in his head but the last couple times he had tried to speak the night before, it had failed. Oh well, he thought to himself. Words will come in time. For now, he just hoped they were going to bring him something good to eat!

* * *

Nagisa gently shook everyone awake downstairs. They were all slumped around in silence, still wearing the robes from the night before.

"Muramatsu, do you think you could make us some breakfast?" Nagisa asked. He was the chef here after all.

"Yeah sure," he got to his feet just as the front doors burst open.

"Good morning boys and girls!" A tall woman dressed in a red low cut gown walked in. Her hair was like liquid gold it was so bright, and her eyes were as piercing as ever.

"Lady Irina," Nagisa turned to her.

No one else made any recognition that they had heard her. Their faces never changing from their solemn expressions.

"Well geez, who died?" she snapped folding her arms.

Hinano burst into tears once again.

"Lady Irina, maybe we should talk outside..."

Ten minutes later he was standing with her before Ritsu's grave having just finished the whole story.

"Well shit..." Lady Irina pulled one of the flowers from her hat and placed it on the grave. "Damn, I was pretty sure she was going to end up being a star pupil for what I was going to start teaching you kids next..."

Lady Irina would come once a month and teach them the ins and outs of fashion and social graces, she let them know any major news happening in high society, and would help them make needed connections for the missions given to them by the Queen.

"What are you going to start teaching us?" Nagisa asked curiously.

"My specialty darling, I've been waiting for you kids to get old enough. Since you're all damn near adults this is the age you're going to start getting hit on, suitors as well as creepers are going to be crawling out the woodwork and you will all need the training to be prepared or that."

Nagisa frowned turning back to Ritsu's grave, that had kinda already started with many of them, but he supposed it would be nice to have more refined skills to bat them away with. Lady Irina was, what was callously dubbed as a high class whore. But more affectionately named a Courtesan. They were typically assigned to one person, often graduating to wives of that person when the time came. Lady Irina had yet to pick anyone to be her more permanent client. So she was free to go about as she pleased.

The fresh dirt from the grave gave off the distinct smell of disturbed earth. Ritsu had never really been useful in missions or training. But she was beautiful. She probably would have been really good at seducing people if trained right.

"Well, I'm going to head to town. Tomorrow is your tea party right? We can have our first training for that after it's over," she turned heading back to her carriage.

The tea party! He had almost forgotten about that!

"Oh, it looks like you got a visitor," Lady Irina explained. "And my a high up one at that..."

Nagisa took a few steps forward so he could around her carriage and sure enough one of the Queen's carriages was coming up the winding path to his Manor.

"Shit! None of us are ready for guests right now!" he frowned.

"Go get ready, I'll hold whoever it is off to give you more time."

"Thank you Lady Iriina," with that Nagisa hurried back into the house.

He wasn't foolish enough to think the Queen was actually in that car. No, she never came to visit him herself. But she would send messengers from her own staff and the Queen's staff needed the same greetings as if a member of Parliament were visiting.

"Guys, we got a visitor!" he announced hurrying up the stairs. "Kaede!"

She jumped to her feet just as everyone started rushing around as well. Most of which were hiding because they technically weren't supposed to be here, but the number of them who did live there hurried to their rooms to change into their uniforms.

Kaede had grabbed her maid outfit on her way upstairs and Nagisa was already changing into his gown, but the clothes that he owned were really a two person job to put on.

* * *

Lady Irina waited leaning against her carriage as it came to a stop next to hers.

The driver jumped down and opened the door and what stepped out was probably the hottest man she had ever seen. Long dark coat, a perfectly tailored suit, gloves clearly covering rough hands from years of hard sweaty labor saving child laborers from collapsed mines, sun kissed skin from rescuing puppies from burning buildings!

"You might want to close your mouth, you're drooling," said a voice behind her making her jump. Chiba had come up behind her, wearing his fancy servant uniform. He was pulling on his last glove before skating around her he wandered up to the man.

"Welcome to the Shitoa estate. May I take your coat?"

"Chiba right?" he asked.

It was quite uncommon for anyone of high standing to remember a servants name, so Chiba was a bit taken aback.

"You're one of the two snipers, correct?"

"Uh..."

"Oh right sorry," he opened up his jacket showing a London Underworld pin. It was a pin used by the Queen to show other members of her secret task force who they were. They were the people pledged with keeping the Underworld crime in line.

"Ah, right this way," Chiba said turning to walk him inside.

"Oh, uh... hi," Lady Irina raised her hand to get him to notice her.

"Lady Irina," he inclined his head to her in respect.

"Oh my, you know my name!"

"I make a point to know the names and faces of all the Queen's pieces," he explained before before following Chiba inside.

Rinka opened the door as they got to it and bowed them in.

"Rinka," the man looked at his notebook. "The second sniper."

"Uh, may I have your name Sir?" Rinka asked.

"Let Lady Nagisa know the Queen's right hand is here."

"No need," Nagisa was on the stairwell, Kaede next to him. Both fully dressed. "If I would have know it was you coming I wouldn't have needed to rush. Can you show me your heart."

He opened his jacket again revealing the pin.

"Perfect, I'm-"

"Countess Nagisa," he shook his hand. "The Queen told me your names and your specialties. But she said if I wanted to know anything more I would need come visit you in person."

"What happened to the Queen's last hand?"

"He died in the Queen's service," he responded without emotion or a sign of regret. "I'm Karasuma. I will be assigning you your missions as well as as accompanying you on some of them. I will also be reporting all your results to the Queen herself."

"Understood," Nagisa said. "What can I do for you Mr. Karasuma?"

"I came here to learn about you," he explained and glancing at the others he added, "All of you. If I'm going to be assigning you your missions I need to know know everything about you. Pasts, skills weaknesses... Everything. It'll help me in choosing the best people needed for each mission."

"Of course, let's go to my study," Nagisa turned to Kaede. "Please let me know when breakfast is ready."

"Yes, my Lady," she added with a bow.

Lady Irina was peeking in through the open door, as soon as they disappeared up stairs she sighed. "My god, have you ever seen a man so hot?!"

"Aw, does Lady Irina have a crush?" Kaede asked.

"What? No! I don't get crushes, little girl! Women like me, entice men. Not the other way around!" she explained.

"Uh-huh..." Kaede turned. "I'm going to help in the kitchen, we're all probably really hungry and Muramatsu will finish quicker with help."

A few of the other stood up to help.

"Wanna join us for breakfast?" Rinka asked Irina who shook her head.

"Are you kididng? I have plenty of fancy dining halls to go eat in. I'll see you kids tomorrow at the tea party."

She headed back to the carriage waving goodbye to them.

"Teaparty?" Kaede frowned. "Oh that's right! I forgot! Lady Nagisa's get-together. Damn it!"

"We better start preparing," Chiba pointed out and they all started to get ready.

* * *

"Who would you like to start with?" Nagisa asked taking a seat in one of his plush armchairs.

"Let's start with you," he took a notebook. "Tell me about yourself."

"Not much to tell, my Mother married a Japanese nobleman, and she brought me to England when he died. My Mother she... she wanted a daughter, and she raised me as one. It's easy for children to believe anything they're told so I didn't realize I was boy until I was about six, my father-in-law explained vividly that that's what I was. But he was willing to overlook it so his son could marry someone with station. My father-in-law is rich, but he doesn't have a noble position. Still his money gets him into pretty much all the places where nobles can go. So it doesn't matter as much. But marrying me, his son gets an actual position in the hierarchy so... It works out for him even if I'm a boy. When my Mother disappeared I was left to live with my finance's family, and when I turned eight (to get him even more money) he gave me to the Queen for this position. I started training, and I moved out of their home and back into my Mother's manor at thirteen, which is also when I started going on missions. Now, this manor is the base of our operations for her highness. That's about it for me..."

"I see..." he had made a few notes on his notepad.

"So, who should we start with next?"

"Whoever you want..."

"We'll talk about Hazama then. She was tasked with joining because she knows a lot about death. You'd be surprised at how often the information gathered at her apprenticeship helps us on missions. Dead bodies can sometimes hold more clues than living ones. When her parents died she joined the profession with her uncle and the Queen supplies him with the funds needed to keep his shop running even when the families can't pay for a funeral or coffin. That's because the money actually comes from Hazama's work for us. She's decent at fighting as well, but that's her main calling."

"As for Okuno she joined us from a circus that we closed down on one of our missions due to mistreatment of their staff as well as their animals. She had no where to go after it was shut down since she had come there as orphan. We spoke with Shiro who let her join us."

Nagisa leaned back in his chair thinking hard. "As for Yada, she's got family connections with England's branch of the Japanese Mafia. So getting into a lot of underground places is a lot easier when she escorts us. Rio is a distant relative of her majesty. Close enough to get invited to a lot of royal functions, but not quite close enough to be overly well known, so people don't often recognize her on the streets. She's quite skillful too, having been trained here by England's royal guards. If forty-three very specific people were to drop dead tomorrow, she would be our new Queen. It's not likely to happen, but she still deserves respect."

"Her majesty didn't tell me that," Karasuma frowned looking down at his notes. "I wonder why."

"Possibly so you wouldn't favor giving her easy missions instead of basing it off her skills," Nagisa, frowned. "At least that's why I wouldn't have told you."

He kept writing in his notebook.

"Then their is Ryoma, he joined right when we set this manor as our base. He hadn't been formally trained like the others, but he took down a number of top soldiers when being chased for stealing food from a vendor."

Karasuma frowned at that, "I find that hard to believe, why would they send top soldiers after someone who stole food?"

"Oh it wasn't like that, the tavern next door was playing host to a number of soldiers and he just happened to unluckily steal when they were there. They heard the vendor shouting and came running so he took off. They eventually cornered him and he beat most of them into a bloody pulp. It took six guys to capture him and based on what he did, they told him he could either go to jail or he could come here and work for the Queen. So that was his choice."

"Alright, so tell me a bit about Ritsu."

"Ritsu is dead," Nagisa said bluntly. "So their isn't anything to know."

"...I'm..." Nagisa's expression had gotten really sad, but he looked as though he were trying to keep it composed. "I'm sorry... My Intel didn't tell me..."

"It happened last night, so you probably wouldn't have heard about that," Nagisa explained.

He choose to move on rather than pursue the subject, he didn't want to make Nagisa relive something unpleasant especially when it happened so recently.

"Itona then," he continued on.

'Be... careful with Itona," Nagisa serious tone threw him for a second.

"Why?"

"He's what we call, a 0 to 100 kid. He is either pleasantly calm for one hundred percent over the top. Being our newest member we still don't know a lot about him. We found him about five months back on a mission, he was being sold and Terasaka refused to leave without him. What we do know is he was sold into slavery as a young kid, and spent a majority of his life in chains and cages. We think he acts like that because he was abused so much. But he'll go ballistic when he sees anything you could bind someone up with. Even Karma, who is one of our best fighter had a hard time trying to calm him down when Hinano had brought some coyote traps from the market. Just the chain rattling made him freak out. Really anything that makes him feel confined and not in control can send him overboard. He's gotten better though, just last week he actually helped Hinano set out some traps but I doubt he would be able to handle seeing the animal who gets caught in one, at least not yet. it's not just fear though, every emotion he has is either 0 or 100. He gets overly excited around anything technical, almost compromised a mission when he found a vehicle in the garage of the building we were breaking into he actually started to dismantle it. He ignored our attempts to communicate with him and Terasaka had to drag him away."

"Likes technology..." he made a note of that. "Got it..."

"As I'm sure you know, one of the best training camps in the world is in Japan. The Queen sometimes sends infants who were orphaned there to study and train. They were sent back to England at 10 years old, they started their missions then as well, a group of them was added to my team the same time I moved into my manor. That's where the rest of them came from."

"This really isn't much more than I already knew," Karasuma said frowning.

"Yeah, but everyone here has things about their past they don't want people knowing. Myself included. You don't really get positions like the ones were in by leading happy healthy lives you know? If you're looking to know more than this asking them yourself would be the best way, but I doubt they'll tell you anything more than what I've told you."

"I understand, it also seems I didn't come on the best of days, I do apologize for your loss."

Nagisa walked over to the window where he could see Ritsu's grave clearly. "Yeah, I wish it had been me instead, but death is something that was going to happen to one of us sooner or later. It's expected with this line of work."

Karasuma closed his notepad. "The next time I come, I'll have a mission for you all. So... until then..."

"Wait, you're welcome to stay for breakfast, if you're hungry."

"That's alright, I have some other errands to run," he explained. "I'll show myself out."

Nagisa didn't turn away from the grave, but when he heard the door close, whispered, "I'm going to make sure you have a beautiful tombstone Ritsu. I'll order one, specially made of marble just for you."

Then he went downstairs to find mostly everyone in the dinning hall eating. Muramatsu had prepared quite a meal for having such a short amount of time to prepare.

A quick scan around the room and he noticed someone was missing.

"Where is Itona?"

"He's still sleeping," Terasaka said as he gulped down a few rolls. "Don't worry I'll bring him something when he wakes up."

Nagisa went over to the basket of rolls grabbing it. "Hinano, will you come with me?"

"Uh, sure?" she jumped up and the two headed upstairs.

"You like animals right?"

"Of course!"

"So I think you might be best to help us teach the creature."

"I mean, I don't know much about Octopus'. But then again, I suppose he only has a similar shape of one, but isn't actually one..." she frowned. "Do you think he really is a demon?"

"Only one way to find out..."

Nagisa opened the door. The creature hadn't moved from his spot but seemed happy they had come in.

"We brought you some food," Nagisa explained. "I don't think I've properly introduced myself. I'm Nagisa, and this is Hinano. You can officially meet the others later. For right now, this bread is for you."

He extended a limb and wrapped it around one of the rolls and put it in his mouth. It was delicious, Crispy on the outside. Doughy on the inside, and... He was detecting honey butter! Which he suddenly remembered what honey butter was. He looked down and...

"AH!" Nagisa gasped. The basket was empty! It had been full seconds before. "How! Did you eat all that?"

The creature nodded.

"I guess he was really hungry," Hinano said smiling. "Can you talk Mr. Demon?"

He opened his mouth and closed it. Then he opened it, and closed it. He seemed to be trying at least and then he seemed to sink down looking sad. "Hey don't worry about it, you don't have to get it today just someday, and we'll work on it. So don't worry."

He smiled, or at least, what appeared to be a smile.

"I think I'll leave you to work with him, but we don't know what he's capable of quite yet, so I don't want anyone up here alone with him. I'll send someone up to assist you," Nagisa started to head back downstiars.

"Alrighty," she said. "Let's try to make a sound. How about Ah. Can you say Ah? Ahhh."

This was going take awhile, Nagisa thought, but right now, they had to focus on the get-together tomorrow. Every three or four months he had to host a party just to keep his name out there with the public. This was common among nobles. If you weren't hosting a party, you needed to be attending one and it was about that time again that he had to host one.

No one was in the mood for a party, but... it was expected... so...

"Oh Nagisa your dress is darling!" the Baroness said upon being greeted by her the following afternoon.

"Thank you, how are your children doing?"

"My son just started at that Kunugigaoka boarding school overseas, isn't that where your fiancé is attending?"

"It is," Nagisa answered.

"Splendid, I'll have to have him ask around and get to know him. Our families should be good friends afterall. But my, having your fiancé so far away. Aren't you lonely?"

"A little," Nagisa lied. "But I have lots of friends here to keep me company so it's alright."

Karma was not too far away dressed in the high class waiter uniforms they were asked to wear. He didn't envy Nagisa one bit, having to sit through all that horribly boring small talk. All he had to do was pass out food and smile and wink at the pretty ladies who thought he was cute. Not a hard job really.

"Alright," Terasaka handed Itona a tray of food. "Carry this around and offer one to people. Now be polite, everyone here is really high class. Remember, do whatever they ask of you, we're here to serve them. If they want a refill get them one. If want more snacks but we've run out, have Muramatsu make more. Got it?"

"Carry food, offer it to the guests, do whatever they ask..." Itona repeated. "That's boring though..."

"Yeah, well this whole party is going to be boring. But we do more than just go on dangerous Missions for the Queen, and the last couple parites we've held you've stayed in the barn because Nagisa didn't think you were socially ready. But he thinks you are now so, if you have any questions just come ask me," Terasaka pointed to himself to ephasize.

"Or if you want a better answer you can ask me," Karma had walked up behind Terasaka grinning evilly.

"You know sometimes if the guests like you enough they'll give you tips. Their not really supposed to, but it's usually me or Isogai who makes the most at the end of the day," Karma said grinning. "And unlike Terasaka here, you're actually something to look at, so you just might give us a run for our money."

He was mostly doing this to see that vein in Terasaka's forehead explode.

"Leave him alone! He doesn't need to be focusing on that!"

"And since I'm such a nice guy," Karma said taking a step forward he slid of Itona's tie and popped open the top two buttons on his shirt. "You know showing more skin isn't just a trick for ladies, it works for guy's too. You'll be ready to compete now. So let's see who makes the most at the end of the night."

"Carry food, offer it to the guests, do whatever they ask, show skin," Itona ran back over the mental check list in his mind.

"What no!" Terasaka snapped. "Don't worry about tips, just be nice and do what they ask you."

With that he gave him a light shove to be on his way before he rounded on Karma. "What do you think you're doing. Don't feed him that crap!"

"Anything that makes your face look like that Terasaka," Karma clapped his shoulder before picking up a tray of drinks and hurrying off.

"My God!" exhaled one of Lady Irina's friends. "What is with little Nagisa's staff. I mean, look at them. All the guys here look like models!"

"Well... Most of them," added another with a small glance in Terasaka's direction.

"And now you know why I come here ladies," Lady Irina finished off her tea and waved Karma over. "Be a doll and refill our drinks would you?"

"Sure thing," He grabbed the pitcher on his tray to do so. "And how are you fine ladies this evening?"

"Do you exclusively work on Nagisa's payroll or do you work other parties as well?" asked the brown haired woman on Lady Irina's right.

"Unfortunately my Lady doesn't allow us the freedoms of attending to other parties, she wishes to have us at her beck and call always," he explained.

"Aw, that's too bad. If you ever get sick of this place, you can come work for me."

"That's quite a tempting offer my Lady, I'll have to think about that."

After filling their drinks he started to head back to the buffet table to refill his tray running into Nagisa. "My Lady," he said with a slight bow.

"Would you stop telling people lies," he snapped.

"I'm making you sound authoritative."

"You're making me sound like a bitch," Nagisa explained frowning.

"An authoritative bitch," he pointed out before side stepping him.

Nagisa sighed. Once again, Karma was doing whatever he pleased.

"My Lady where do you want the cake?" Kaede asked.

"Anywhere that's shaded."

"Alright!" she hurried over setting it on the shaded part of the table. Terasaka was on refill duty for the buffet table but he was spending a lot of time watching Itona.

"Nervous are you?" Kaede asked.

"This is the first time we've had him do cover work. He's just been doing the mission parts up until now... I'm still not too sure he's ready to be interacting with people you know..."

"You've been working a lot though, and he's load better than he was when he first arrived," Kaede explained. "Don't worry so much, I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Yeah, I guess..." he knelt down to pick up something he dropped. She didn't really know how hard it had been dealing with Itona in the beginning. No one really did, because he had worked with Itona (for the most part) alone. Teaching him what was or was not appropriate conduct. Those beginning days had been a nightmare trying to teach him acceptable behaviors while trying to knock out learned unacceptable behaviors. He just wanted today to go well for him, because that meant they he might not need so much supervision.

One of the women at Lady Irina's table spoke up when Itona walked by, "My what a cute little white rabbit."

She had jet black hair and was wearing a sky blue dress. Her dress too was low cut like Irina's.

"Clara, play nice now," Lady Irina explained.

"I always play nice," she said getting to her feet she walked over to him.

"I'll take one of those sweetie," she said indicating the small hors d'oeuvres on his tray.

He held the tray out to her and she ate it slowly licking her lips when she finished. "Oh it's divine have you tried one?"

She picked up another holding it up to his mouth.

"Yeah, I think they're nasty," he explained somewhat bluntly and had clearly missed that she wanted to feed it to him.

"Well, if that's not to your taste," she glanced around to make sure Lady Irina wasn't looking, before she picked up his tray and sat it down on a nearby empty table. She grabbed his wrist and began walking, "Come with me sweetie, I think I have something you'd like."

"What?" he asked curiously.

She led him around the edge of the building into the shade. "You know we Cortesan's have pretty hard job, we have to take care of client after client but we don't really get to pick someone of our liking, but I think you're absolutely delicious."

"How do you know, you haven't tasted me."

It was one of those innocent responses that could be taken as being dirty, and she loved it. How adorable was this little white rabbit? So innocent, so naive.

"That can be easily remedied," she explained leaning down she gave him a soft kiss and he immediately took a step back, bumping into the manor wall. "See? Now I know you're delicious. Just let me play with you for a little while okay?"

 _Remember, do whatever they ask of you_. Those had been Terasaka's words.

"Okay," he answered.

Her grin split into a wide smile as she came closer. He didn't have any feelings about this one way or another so he watched with mild interest as she unbuttoned his shirt and knelt down to kiss him. Her tongue entered his mouth. Alcohol, cigars, and the hors d'oeuvres she just ate... He decided she didn't taste very good. She had clearly lied about having something he'd like.


	3. Cherished

It wasn't as though this was the first time someone had done something like this to him. Though he never really understood why people liked to do these things. It was boring, and their was no challenge to it and he had a brain that liked to be challenged.

He stood there watching her with his eyes open.

"Jeez kid, you could at least kiss me back, you're with a beautiful lady right now, aren't you turned on at all?"

"Not really," he answered bluntly again.

"UGH! How rude! I happen to be one of the most beautiful women you'll probably ever be with!"

"You're alright," he answered.

"Alright!? Are you serious right now? You should be grateful you brat!"

"For what? You haven't given me anything..."

She looked throughly annoyed now. "Ugh, whatever, this is for me anyway. This is the first time I've gotten to kiss something that's adorable and isn't over forty in a long time. So just keep quiet and don't interrupt me again."

She pushed him back into the wall and continued kissing him. He didn't know why he had been scolded, she was the one who asked him a question in the first place.

* * *

"UGH!" Rinka had been about to turn around the corner carrying a bundle of dirty table clothes when she heard the noise. So she stopped to listen.

"How rude! I happen to be one of the most beautiful women you'll probably ever be with!"

"You're alright."

It was Itona...

"You should be grateful you brat!"

"For what? You haven't given me anything..."

"Ugh, whatever, this is for me anyway. This is the first time I've gotten to kiss something adorable and wasn't over forty in a long time. So just keep quiet and don't interrupt me again."

She turned back heading over to the buffet table she put the tablecloths in a box below the table to be washed later.

"Having fun?" Terasaka asked her as he set out another basket of rolls.

"I guess, right now I got to go tell Lady Nagisa that Itona's being molested around the back of the building by a guest," she explained.

"He's what!?"

"Don't go thinking of heading over there. We're playing servants right now, it's not our place to interfere with that. I'll get our Lady to put a stop to it."

"Fuck that!" he snapped ripping off his apron he started to head over there.

"Ugh, damn it," she sighed and she rushed over to Nagisa. She was pretty sure Terasaka was going to screw this up.

Surprisingly though he actually had a pretty good plan.

"There you are!" he snapped loudly to pull them apart, and hit Itona over top of the head making Itona look up at him. His expression looked a bit like what a puppy looks like if you scold them for no reason. "I've been looking for you everywhere slacker, you're supposed to be working."

He bowed to the lady, "I'm very sorry that he disturbed you my Lady, it won't happen again."

She glanced down at Itona as though thinking, knowing full well, it would look bad on her to continue at this point so she frowned. "See that it doesn't," she stated simply before returning to the party.

"Geez, you okay?" he asked turning back to him. He still had that expression on his face and had one hand on the spot where he had hit him.

"Yeah, sorry, but socially the only way to really get out of that one would be to blame you. Next time don't follow one of the guests off to a secluded place. Nobles may be rich, but their not exactly upstanding most of the time."

"But you said to do whatever they asked," Itona pointed out.

"I didn't mean... Ugh, why does everything have to be spelled out for you?" he frowned. Itona was looking at the ground, his clothes were disheveled, and he had few hickies forming on his neck and chest. "Here let's get you back to looking presentable."

He started re-buttoning Itona's shirt just as Karma came around the corner and a huge grin spread across his face. "Look Terasaka, you can do what you want to Itona on your own time, but right now, you should be working."

"What, no it's not what it looks like!" he snapped jumping back.

"Really, I overhear Rinka telling Nagisa that Itona's in trouble, and I come around the corner to find you undressing him, seems pretty legit to me..." Karma knew full well what was going on, but again, anything to get Terasaka to make that face. It made his day to see big bad Terasaka all flustered and nervous.

"No it... It was one of Irina's friends. She... Itona tell him!"

Itona had finished buttoning his own shirt, without looking up he added, "Terasaka told me to do whatever I was told."

He was clearly playing along, with Karma.

"Do what you're told, that's a little kinky for you isn't it?" Karma was throughly enjoying this. "Weren't you going to be his teacher? Abusing your power a bit much aren't you?"

"UGH! No! I... whatever, screw you both!" he snapped heading back to work in a huff.

Karma laughed, "Ah, too funny."

"He sure gets upset easily doesn't he?" Itona asked watching him walk off.

"That's why it's fun to mess with him," he explained. "On a serious note are you sure you're okay."

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"... Good question," Karma answered and watched while Itona headed after Terasaka. _He either doesn't understand what was happening to him, or he doesn't care_ , Karma thought. He was ready to put money on the latter. Either way it probably wasn't a good idea to create fear where their was none. But his not understanding how manipulative adults could be wasn't good as well. He was going to end up in a lot of trouble someday because of it.

Nagisa had finally made it over, but saw that Itona was already back with Terasaka. "Thanks for handling that Karma."

"Well if we had to wait for you, that bitch would have already been through with him," Karma pointed out. "Where were you anyway?"

"The Baroness wouldn't stop talking about her children, and you know it's rude to leave a conversation abruptly."

"Hence why I was here to save the day," Karma pointed out knowing full well he hadn't saved anybody. "Alright, lets get back to work."

* * *

The party had been successful, and he wouldn't have to hold another one for at least three months. Lady Irina was supposed to start their training today, but after she heard what one of her girls had been doing to Itona she said she had to take her home for punishment. Whatever that meant, he didn't ask..

"Lady Nagisa, we're starting a chess tournament," Kaede informed him.

"I'll pass, I'm going to go see if the demon needs anything."

"Didn't you tell us to make sure their were at least two people in there with the demon at all times?"

"Me and Karma are fine to go in there alone," he explained just as a knock was heard at the door. "Damn, who could that be..."

"I got it," Kaede said cheerfully, she rushed forward and opened the door only to have it pushed open the moment she turned the handle. She lost her balance and fell onto the floor.

"Gakushū..." Nagisa felt his stomach fall through the floor.

"Hello darling," he said grinning. Behind him were some of his school friends.

"I... I thought you were overseas," Nagisa clearly didn't looked pleased.

"It's time for the break, so I went home to see Dad, but his house is still a ways away and well, I remembered you lived close to the docks so I figured we could all crash at your place, well... My place once we're married."

"Uh, of course," Nagisa turned to Kaede. "Please have dinner prepared for our guests, and set up the guest rooms."

"Uh yeah... okay." She jumped up and hurried into the basement, which was like their free space as well as their training ground. They didn't want to be doing certain things in the public eye so training and discussing plans took place in the basement.

"Guys! Lord Asano's here!" she exclaimed upon rushing inside. "He brought friends."

Nagisa's usual staff immediately got to their feet knowing they had to go upstairs and start serving drinks and stuff. Her maids were, Rinka, Yukiko, and Kaede where Nagisa's main maids and Chiba, Isogai, and Karma were his main butlers. So they were getting ready to go upstairs. Hinano was in charge of the animals on his estate, and Terasaka and Itona were his laborers who tended his gardens and fixed anything that broke around his place. Then Muramatsu was his chef and Taisei was his driver. Everyone else had homes outside of the estate so the few of them that were here, didn't have to make their presence known.

"The rest of you just stay down here," Kaede demanded and the rest of them headed upstairs. The door to the basement was right by the main stairwell so the guests were the first thing they saw when they came upstairs.

Asano was standing in front of Nagisa looking like the prick he'd always been.

Nagisa turned around, "Muramatsu, could you please start dinner."

"On it," he headed to the kitchen.

"Karma could you bring us drinks," she asked.

"Certainly," he started heading to the kitchen as well.

And Nagisa reached out grabbing his arm. "Bring something good," he said. "I haven't seen my fiancé in awhile after all."

"Alright," he turned heading to the wine cellar. He caught his meaning, Nagisa needed him to get their strongest alcohol. His plan was to get them so drunk that they pass out. Not a plan he would have went with, but an understandable one.

He grabbed the bottle with the highest alcohol percentage and headed upstairs. One of the girls had already got them glasses by the time he arrived. The three of them were standing off to the side as if they had been told to do so.

Nagisa was sitting beside Asano, and his four buddies were on the couch across from them.

Ren jumped up and took the bottle from Karma, "So here is what I suggest. We have the guys go hang out in the barn for the night, and we stay here and play some games with the girls."

"Hell yeah," Tomoya said grinning.

"C'mon Nagisa, order your boys to leave," Asano demanded. "We could play Forfeits."

"Heh, yeah right... How about about-" Karma began only Nagisa cut him short.

"Karma, take the guys and leave."

"What?"

"Go to out to the barn and don't come back until morning."

Kaede threw nervous glances at the other girls.

"You're joking?"

"Now Karma..." Nagisa demanded.

Karma's face fell in an almost disappointed manner.

"As you wish, my Lady," his voice was cold, and he knew Karma was upset with him.

Nagisa avoided looking at him as he headed into the other room.

* * *

"He wants us to leave?"

"Yup, so c'mon," Karma explained heading to the back door.

"I'm not leaving Rinka with those guys, especially if they're going to be drinking," Chiba snapped.

Karma smiled. "Put your chivalry boyfriend hormones on the shelf for a bit, and stop underestimating the girls. Those idiots are nothing, and the girls can handle them easily. The question is if Nagisa is going to let them..."

"Huh?"

"Nagisa turns into a bit of a wuss when his fiancés around, and frankly I don't really like him when he's like that. So I wouldn't stay even if we weren't being told to leave," he explained.

"So wait what are we supposed to be expecting here..."

"I'm telling you, the girls could handle those jerks, if Nagisa would let them, but I doubt he's going to. So they'll just have to hope the drinks knock them out."

"Hinano, they probably haven't noticed you yet," Muramatsu explained. "You could come out to the barn with us."

"Yeah, but someone needs to watch the demon. I don't want one of them wandering upstairs and finding him," she explained. "I know Lady Nagisa said we should go in pairs, but he seems to like me even with the little I've been around him."

"If that's what you want, c'mon guys," Karma headed out the back and Hinano went through a secret passage to avoid walking by the parlor to go upstairs.

* * *

 _I have to be smart_ , Nagisa thought to himself. Asano and his friends were clearly here just to cause trouble. If they were nobodies, this would have already been over and he would have made them leave long before this. But with Asano being his fiance and with his...

His heart sank. Upsetting any of them could turn out very bad for all of them. He couldn't upset them. Play along, get them to drink a lot, and hope that they eventually pass out... That was all they could do.

Ren was staring out into the hall frowning as the other ones picked their favorite maid to sit with.

"I can't help but notice their is an odd number of girls here," Ren explained. "Lucky for me, I think I saw a cute little something run upstairs."

Hinano... Damn... Nagisa jumped to his feet. "It's alright, I'll go and grab her for you-"

Asano grabbed his wrist tightly making him wince from the pain and forced him back onto the seat beside him, he didn't release Nagisa's wrist, choosing instead to hold it firmly so he wouldn't try something.

"Go get her," he added to his friend.

Rinka had started pulling out her gun and Kaede had to grab her arm to stop her revealing her weapon.

* * *

"Hi," Hinano closed the door behind her and locked it. "You might hear a lot of commotion downstairs, but don't be scared okay."

The demon was munching on a plethora of food they had stocked up around him, he turned to look at her when she came in.

"We'll just sit here and be really quiet. Alright," she said sitting on the floor beside him.

She had come up to make sure he wasn't scared, but she was the one who looked scared. He wondered what was going on downstairs...

BANG! Something had hit the door making Hinano jump.

"Hey sweet heart, come downstairs. We're going to play a game."

She scrambled back to her feet. "Oh crap," she sighed. He can't know...

She hurried around and grabbed blankets piling them on the demon. "Don't move or make any noise okay," she said.

"Ahhh," he made the noise she had taught him.

"No no," she shook her head looking horribly worried. "None of that right now. It's quiet time. Okay, quiet. Shhh..."

"Shhhh," he repeated.

"Yeah okay good," she threw the last blanket on him.

"I saw you come in here," he said jiggling the handle and discovering it was locked. "Open it, or I'll kick it open."

She took a deep breath and walked over to the door opening it a crack, at which point Ren pushed it open all the way. He scanned the room. "C'mon this place looks boring," he threw and arm around her shoulders. "You'll have much more fun downstairs."

Hinano looked back at the small gap in the clothes that the creature was looking out from as the door closed and he could see her no more.

* * *

"Found her," Ren said happily. His arm around her shoulders, but it may as well have been a choke hold for how scared she looked.

The boys had not gone to the barn, but instead had climbed up the vines on the side of the building and broke into the second floor. Having had plenty of practice, they didn't make a sound upon landing there. they took a knife to the floorboards pulling out mall cork-like pieces of wood. It opened up only the smallest of holes in the ceiling. So small no one would notice, but it provided a great view for spying. The parlor was the main place for negotiations after all.

"Alright then," Gakushū got to his feet smiling. "We're going to play Forfeits. For those who don't know the rules, you put something of value into a bowl. One by one we guess who it belongs to. If we're right, you have to do something we ask. If you fail to do it, we get to keep said item."

Grabbed the nearby candy bowl and dropped the candy on the floor. "Alright, go on. We'll turn around."

They actually did so, Rinka attempted to grab her gun again, and both Nagisa and Kaede stopped her.

"Just, play along alright, and convince them to drink," Nagisa explained. Their wasn't really a need to convince them. Even as he said that the others were taking shots.

"Can't you just tell them to leave, I mean... you out rank them," Kaede asked looking upset.

"Kaede, please just-"

"We could easily take them," Rinka explained. "I probably don't even need my gun. They don't look very skilled..."

Nagisa frowned, "That's not the point, girls just..."

"Are you done yet?" Asano snapped.

Nagisa took off his ring and put it in the bowl.

Rinka removed one of her hair ribbons.

Yukiko put in a lipstick tube.

Kaede took off an ear ring.

Hinano had had a small necklace which she really didn't want to see go, but she didn't have anything else to put in there.

"Ready," Nagisa said setting the bowl on the coffee table.

Gakushū walked over and picked up Nagisa's ring,

"This is yours Nagisa," he said grinning. **  
**

Nagisa stepped forward.

"Do you want it back?"

"Yes," he didn't really care if he got it back or not. The ring didn't mean anything to him. But he knew no, was not what Gakushū wanted him to say. **  
**

"Alright, put your hands on your head and don't move from that spot..."

Nagisa did so, and Gakushū walked over to him. The next second he had kicked Nagisa right in the stomach, he lurched forward. **  
**

Kaede gasped rushing over to him. That had been a really hard kick.

Karma was staring down watching, he hadn't flinched when Nagisa got kicked, but his eyes had narrowed to almost dangerous slits. Itona and Terasaka were sharing one of he wholes.

"Why don't we go help him?" Itona asked frowning slightly.

Terasaka looked over at Karma. Karma was like the second in command. When Nagisa wasn't around to give orders, they looked to Karma. "Nagisa told us to leave."

"You're not going to help him?"

"Nope," Karma answered resting his head on his hand as he watched what was going on.

Itona got to his feet and started heading to the door.

"Whoa, Itona!" Terasaka jumped up shutting the door just as Itona turned the handle to leave. "We're not supposed to go down there."

"Why?"

"You can ask Nagisa when these guys finally leave," Karma said. He sounded bored, but Terasaka sensed an underlining tone of anger to his words.

"..."

"I don't need permission to save someone," he explained and started to open the door again.

Terasaka continued to hold it shut.

"Move!" Itona demanded looking upset.

"They'll be okay, sometimes part of our missions are to wait before saving someone..."

Itona didn't like that answer and he started to work harder at opening the door to the point Terasaka was starting to struggle, and pretty soon they were making a noticeable amount of noise. "Restrain him Terasaka," Karma demanded, though he didn't stop looking down.

"Damn," he frowned. That was what he didn't want to do. He knew how Itona was when he felt trapped, but they really couldn't be caught. For whatever reason was in Nagisa's head. He pulled Itona close and pulled him to the ground where they had to wrestle a bit before he was finally able to pin him. "Let go! Terasaka get off-"

He covered Itona's mouth. "Settle down! We can't go down there right now, and you're going to give away our position!" his voice was firm but whispering.

"Jeez, how are you that strong when your this small," Terasaka groaned struggling to hold him.

Chiba had gotten a bit distracted by those two, but when he turned back he saw Tomoya had grabbed Hinano's necklace.

"I think this is Rinka's," he said grinning.

"Wrong," she answered.

"Sorry?" he asked narrowing his eyes. "Are you sure this isn't yours? I mean... I could break it, if it's not."

Hinano looked slightly panicked, and Rinka sighed before stepping forward. "I lied, it's mine."

"I thought so," he grinned. "Do you want this back?"

"Yes," she answered.

"Alrighty then," he grinned and eyed the others. "Take off your uniform."

Nagisa sat up glaring at Asano who grinned and seemed to approve the idea. Rinka eyed Nagisa as though expecting him to do something. But he didn't. She looked down at the floor and then reached up and began to untie her apron at the waist and then at the neck. It fell to the floor and she reached behind her unbuttoning her dress from behind her neck.

"C'mon Nagisa," Karma frowned. He couldn't believe Nagisa was this much of a coward. Why was he so afraid of his fiancé? The idea that he would let them do this to Rinka. Chiba looked throughly pissed. His fists were clenched, even though his eyes were hidden behind his bangs, you could tell he was angry. Entirely expected of course, Rinka was his girl after all.

Just as she started to pull her dress down Nagisa had gotten to his feet, he opened his mouth to say something. Though he didn't get a chance. A book had come flying across the room and hit Tomoya across the face. He fell backwards onto the ground. "Who threw that?"

Everyone looked in the direction of the bookshelf. No one was there.

Nagisa wondered if one of the people who were supposed to be hiding downstairs had thrown it.

"Seriously who threw that?"

Another book hit Asano from behind and he spun around glaring furiously.

"What the hell?" Karma leaned closer trying to see.

"They do say this place is haunted," Kaede pointed out. It was a lie. No one said that. Though her little lie had made most of their expressions drop. "A few people have died in this house you know."

"And it was buried on a burial ground," Hinano added.

"I think that's a little too much," Yukiko whispered to her.

"They say the ghost only like girls, and when someone disrespects them, she gets violent."

"Is that true Asano?" Natsuhiko asked inching closer to him.

"It's nonsense," Asano explained. "Man up, already."

Karma turned his head in the direction of the attic, he wondered if somehow, the demon was doing this.

Itona had calmed down a little, but he had started shaking. He had one hand covering Itona's mouth and the opposite arm wrapped around Itona's chest clamping onto one of his wrists. He knew how much he hated being held down or bound in anyway, and he was kinda pissed at Karma for not taking some initiative and overriding Nagisa to have avoided this situation, and he was pissed at Nagisa for having made them all end up in this situation in the first place...

"Maybe we should leave," Teppei said frowning and straitening his glasses nervously.

Another book smacked Ren in the back. "Fuck this! I'm leaving," he exclaimed rushing out of the parlor. the other's quickly followed suit. All except Asano who stood there with his arms crossed.

"They're a bunch of idiots," he turned to Nagisa. "I don't know how you pulled off this little stunt. But he'll hear about it."

Nagisa's eye's widened slightly and even though it hurt he hurried forward as fast as his stomach injury would let him move, and he grabbed Asano's arm, "Asano please don't-"

Asano pulled his arm away before grabbing the back of her hair he pulled Nagisa close, coincidentally, he was right below where Karma was watching. "Now you're making my friends and I go all the way to town because you decided to make some books fly around. You need to stop pissing me off or as soon as we're married I'll sell you for parts and marry myself an _actual_ woman."

The way he worded that, Karma seemed to understand. Asano knew Nagisa was a boy. He hadn't realized he did before now.

With that he roughly pushed Nagisa back and left the manor.

Karma replaced the small cork piece back in the hole and got to his feet. "They're gone," he told Terasaka, whose grip instantly loosened and Itona yanked himself free moving a couple steps away from him.

Chiba had hurried off ahead of everyone else and Karma followed at a slower pace. When the two of them were the only ones in there Terasaka spoke up, "Sorry, but you have to learn to act only when you're told."

Itona didn't move or make any sign he had heard him.

"They were okay, I promise, their lives weren't in danger, those guys really weren't a threat."

"You should be willing to help anyone in trouble. It shouldn't matter if it's life threatening or not..."

"Geez, why was it so important to you?" Terasaka looked down at his hand, where at some point in their struggles Itona had bit him.

"Because I know what it's like to be in trouble and know no one's coming..." he explained softly before heading after Karma and the others, his hands in his pockets.

"It was the demon, I'm sure of it," Hinano explained. "He saved us!"

"Well well..." Karma said softly. "What a lucky break for you Nagisa. A couple of books go flying and you're suddenly off the hook."

"..."

Everyone got silent. The door to the basement opened and Toka, Masayoshi, and Rio made their way out. They had been talking together, having known it was safe to come up because of the commotion they heard. But they stopped talking as soon as they felt how swiftly the air had. changed.

"I had it under control," Nagisa explained.

"Did you?" he stopped in front of Nagisa frowning slightly and tapped Nagisa's stomach where he got kicked. Nagisa nearly buckled over and almost fell when Kaede rushed forward and caught him helping him regain his footing. "Did you have it under control when he kicked you? Or how about what they were doing to Rinka."

Everyone was dead silent.

"I would have stopped it," Nagisa answered. He was starting to look upset now.

"When? When she was standing before them completely naked. After they had ordered her to the ground and took turns?" his voice was piercing with anger.

"I wouldn't have let it go that far!" he snapped.

"You let those little rich boys from school into your home and allowed them to do whatever they pleased with your staff, and why? I mean I could at least understand if a Baron or a Lord entered our home and tried to pull that shit. I mean, it would have needed to be stopped regardless, but you would have had an excuse then."

"Stop Karma," Nagisa's voice was commanding, it was clearly not a suggestion.

"Anyone else without station tried to pull that crap you would have sent them packing. So why are you so scared of your fiancé."

"I'm not scared of him..." Nagisa snapped.

"Everyone else shouldn't have to suffer because you're little coward around him."

"I said, I'm not scared of him!"

"If you don't like how I run my home, you don't have to live here!" Nagisa was really starting to look upset.

"I'm worried about their safety, I don't like seeing our friends get hurt."

"You think I do!"

"Clearly you must," he snapped. "Your subjects come first before everything else, how do you expect to win a game of chess with only a king. You have to worry about the other pieces."

"Oh boy..." Rio folded her arms frowning.

"Ugh! You don't understand how hard this is! You don't know what I have to think about in every situation!"

"What I know, is if I were the one with the social station and a place in the hierarchy, I wouldn't let anyone come in and mess with my pawns like you let them do," he started circling him, like an animal hunting prey. "But then again, I wouldn't look as good in the dress..."

Nagisa's fists tightened. Everyone had backed off a bit.

"It's not always about the situation at hand Karma, it's about tomorrow, it's about class, it's about not blowing your cover, about who people know."

"Alright then, who does your fiancé know that you're so scared of. If it's not him, then clearly theirs someone."

The slightest change of expression flickered across his face and his face lowered slightly. The small display of weakness infuriated Karma.

"You really are a fucking coward, but a round of applause for your Mom for raising you as a girl. I guess she really knew a pussy when she saw one."

Nagisa's expression changed lightning fast, and that's when Karma lunged forward grabbing the edge of his dress he pulled him up close to his face. "Yeah, you wanna have a go? Don't think I'll go easy on you just because you're dressed like a girl."

He shoved him up against the wall but Nagisa's glare never faltered, "I'm really not in the mood to kick your ass today," Nagisa snapped. "Settle down!"

"Please stop fighting! Please!"

"Shut up Ritsu," Karma snapped. "You think that-"

He stopped abruptly. That was Ritsu's voice... that was her voice... But she was...

He spun around, everyone was staring at the same spot. Ritsu was standing in the middle of the room looking sad. "I'm sure Nagisa had a plan, I butted in too quick when I threw the books. I'm sorry... Please don't fight anymore."

She was Ritsu, but she wasn't. She was there, but she was see through...

"No way..." Rio walked forward and reached out a hand lightly touching Ritsu's harm. It felt cold, like dipping your fingers into a pond, only it didn't feel wet...

"How are you... How..." Kaede stammered unable to believe her eyes.

"I don't know... I suddenly woke up in my grave. But my body wouldn't move so I left it there and came up here. That's when I saw what was going on downstairs, I couldn't let them do that to Rinka and everyone."

"Wow, our pretend story about the ghost was actually true," Kaede laughed grinning.

"What do you know, Ritsu has more balls than you," Karma threw his last retort so only the two of them could hear before he stepped forward to examine Ritsu as well.

Everyone was fascinated by her and she showed them how she could go completely invisible.

"What does being a ghost feel like?" Masayoshi asked questionably.

"I don't know. I don't really feel anything. But flying, flying reminds a lot of what swimming used to feel like..." She flew upstairs disappearing into the ceiling before flying back into the room.

"You realize this could actually be pretty useful," Rio explained. "You could go into locked rooms for us, and listen in on discussions that would be too difficult to infiltrate with a living person."

"I'd be happy to be useful for once," she said, clearly referencing how she hadn't been very useful in her living days.

"Useful or not, I'm glad your back Ritsu, even if it's not in the way we expected," Nagisa smiled at her.

"Thanks my Lady!" she said happily.

"Everyone, this is a time to celebrate, so go raid the kitchen and eat whatever you want."

Many of them cheered and they hurried towards the kitchen with Ritsu floating above them. She knew she wouldn't be able to eat like this, but she was just happy to be apart of the fun.

As Hinano walked by Nagisa asked her to check up on the demon. When they had all disappeared around the corner he started heading up stairs. Today had been a long day, he was spent. He really was happy Ritsu was back, but he just didn't feel like celebrating himself.

He shut the door to his room and reached up trying to unlatch the dress he wore which was buttoned all the way up to his neck. Lifting his arms hurt, and he wondered if his ribs might have gotten caught a bit in the kick even though it had mostly hit his stomach. The corset he was wearing was not helping anything either...

He felt two hands on his shoulders that slid down slowly making his arms go down at his sides. He felt Karma place his forehead against the back of head, and he sighed exhaling softly, his breath trickled down the back of his neck.

Karma never apologized for stunts like what he pulled today. He would just do things like this...

"I really was pissed today, you know that..."

"I know..." Nagisa answered frowning. "I wasn't going to let anything happen to her."

"IDIOT!" Karma snapped wrapping his arms around Nagisa's shoulder. "It wasn't just her, it was you too. You could have easily avoided that kick and not been hurt yourself..."

"..."

"Tell me what you're so afraid of," Karma frowned, it deepened when he felt Nagisa shiver slightly. _He's shaking just thinking about it_... Though he wouldn't have admitted it aloud, Nagisa was stronger than him, it was something he had always admired about him. To see him act like this... It enraged him, and caused a pain in his chest that he couldn't explain.

"Kaede normally helps you right? So you're not used to undressing on your own. Let me help," he started unbuttoning his dress leaving a trail of kisses after each latch he unbuttoned.

Nagisa felt like melting, it had been quite awhile since Karma had touched him. Karma had been on a mission with Tomohito and Chiba for weeks, and then the moment he returned Shiro had forced them to summon the demon, and then with Ritsu's passing and everything else, their hadn't been much time to be alone together. Nagisa brought the back of his hand up to his mouth to stifle a moan, but Karma had heard it, he missed no sign of weakness in anyone and never failed to exploit it.

"Did you really miss me that much?" he asked pulling the dress down to his waist he started kissing his neck. He glanced up into the mirror that Nagisa was standing in front of. His face was flushed, and his eyes were half closed. "Damn, if it makes you look this cute then maybe I shouldn't touch you for weeks at a time more often."

"Ugh, shut up," Nagisa sighed. "Please just-"

Karma didn't wait for him to finish but picked him up and brought him over to the bed. He kissed him while he removed the corset, but once it was removed he froze and ran his fingers across the mark that had appeared on him the other day. Nagisa had almost forgotten about it.

"You have one too..." Karma whispered.

"Too?" Nagisa frowned.

Karma spread his fingers open showing Nagisa the palm of his hand, There was the same mark.

"What is this?" Karma asked him. "Do you know?"

"Do you care?" Nagisa asked clearly sounding disappointed and Karma couldn't have that. "Right, I guess we were in the middle of something huh?"

His kiss got more vigorous but not dominating, he was very aware that Nagisa was injured, and didn't want to do anything to cause him to hurt worse. He brought a hand up caressing the place where he had been kicked and Nagisa let out a small but un-concealable gasp of pain. "Don't," he pushed Karma's hand from his stomach and tried to get Karma to focus again on kissing him.

He stopped kissing him all together, focusing on the injury. He pushed on it lightly and Nagisa winced. "Yeah, I think we're done... we can't do this with you in this state."

Nagisa let out an exasperated sigh, "Karma!"

He was half whining, half angry.

"Calm down," he said smiling. "If you're good, I'll cherish you until you fall asleep."

He frowned, by cherish he meant caress, which Nagisa supposed was better than nothing. So Karma took off his shoes and climbed into bed with him. He ran his fingers through his hair, across his chest and arms, and down his neck.

They had a strange relationship and could literally go from nearly killing one another one minute to making out the next. Regardless of how much they disagreed, or how bad they would fight, they loved each other. Though neither of them had said those words to the other yet. Saying it would finalize this, and it was almost like they were both unwilling to take that step especially knowing they were in a job where being alive tomorrow was not a guarantee.

It didn't take too long for Nagisa to fall asleep in his arms, and he spent most of the night watching him sleep. Not just because he adored him, but also because he was looking for any signs of his stomach injury getting worse. Injuries like this could bleed internally without you knowing, so he didn't want to leave his side.


	4. Destroyed

"We gotta figure out what to feed this thing," Nagisa explained sighing.

"He eats food, clearly..." Karma commented.

The creature was on his third basket of rolls.

"You know what I mean, he's not any stronger than the day we brought him home," Nagisa frowned walking over to the creature who looked in his direction.

"Can't you say anything, or give us any sort of clue as to what would make you stronger..."

"..." he raised a limb and opened his mouth.

"Nyaaaaaaaaaaaaa," he said loudly.

"Ugh..." Nagisa stood back up.

"Maybe we should try some more, demon like food," Hinano suggested.

"What do you mean?" Nagisa asked standing up so she could approach the demon.

"Well," she walked over to him, "Maybe he likes... blood?"

She bit the end of her finger making a small cut and held the pearl of blood that had formed on her finger out to the creature. He stared down at her finger and then back up at her.

"I think that's vampires," Karma pointed out.

"Oh..." she frowned. "Mr. Demon, if we bring you some various foods would you be able to tell us if you like them or not? You could just shake your head yes or no."

"..."

Nagisa frowned. "We don't even know if it can understand us."

"I think he does," she pointed out. "He seems like he does anyway."

The creature started ripping the blanket he was laying on pulling a small strip of cloth off. He then brought it up, tying it around Hinano's finger.

"Aw... thank you," she said smiling. "Aren't you sweet."

"... Are we sure we summoned a demon?" Karma looked a bit disappointed. "He doesn't act very demon like."

"Those people in Masks at the summoning, They paid a lot of money to glimpse a powerful demon," Hinano explained frowning. "If we didn't summon a demon, we're going to be screwed right? Master Shiro is going to sell us in the creatures place..."

"We could always run for it," Karma explained.

"We wouldn't be able to escape God..." Nagisa pointed out. God was the nick name of a member of the Queen's secret task force, well, a task force higher up than their own. Technically they were members of her secret task force as well. He was the guy the Queen called in when and if they screwed something up. Even Karma couldn't take that guy.

"I could probably take him now," Karma explained pulling out his knife he twirled it around in his hand for emphasis before replacing it in his pocket.

Nagisa doubted it. Not that he doubted Karma's skills, but God was just that good.

"We'll figure something out. Keep working with him in the meantime Hinano," Nagisa headed back downstairs looking worried.

Kaede was hurrying by holding a bundle of blankets that needed to be washed. "Oh, Lady Nagisa you have a letter," Kaede shuffled the weight of the fabric to her other arm so she could reach in her apron pocket and handed him a letter.

"Thanks," he opened it and unfolded the letter.

"Another mission already?" Karma asked.

"Seems so," he read it over then handed it to Karma.

"An all girls school... I'll go on this one," he teased and Nagisa threw him a dirty look. "It's a catholic school taught by nuns."

"Yeah I know, that' exactly why I want to go?" Karma explained grinning.

"Are you a girl?" Nagisa asked slightly annoyed.

"No."

"Well then clearly this mission wasn't meant for you."

"You're not a girl either," he frowned, and Nagisa glared at him.

And Karma smirked following Nagisa outside as he started contemplating who should go on this mission. "A school like that only upper class women would attend. So, it's gotta be me and Rio. Toka would be good as well..."

He was talking more to himself than to Karma. This was a habit of his, he would often talk though his thoughts aloud to himself.

They were heading around the corner where Kaede and Yukiko were washing.

Karma motioned to them and walked over. "Wanna see a new trick that I taught Ritsu?"

"Sure," they answered.

Nagisa had gone over to request repairs for the shed's roof, an issue they had noticed a few weeks ago, but were only able to see to it today.

Karma let out a whistle and Ritsu came floating through the wall over to him. "Hi Karma!" she said cheerfully."

"Alright, remember that trick we were practicing on the animals?"

"I sure do," she answered.

"Alright do it to Nagisa," he ordered.

"Will it be okay?' she asked. "Nagisa might get mad a me."

"I'll tell him I told you to, go ahead," he urged.

The girls watched as Ritsu floated off in his direction soon going completely invisible.

"If you get time today, their's no rush. We're probably not going to get rain for awhile any-" his body jumped, Nagisa staggered and closed his eyes.

Itona blinked at him, "Are you okay?"

Nagisa looked up and giggled. "Hi Itona!"

He raised an eyebrow clearly confused.

The girls rushed over, Karma following in their wake. Terasaka was walking out of the barn holding a bundle of wood.

"Wow, did she do what I think she did?" Kaede asked.

"I taught her to possess people by practicing on animals," Karma explained. "She can take over any living creature."

"Whoa, seriously. That's going to be really handy," Terasaka pointed out. "So you're in complete control of Nagisa's body?"

"I am," Ritsu answered.

"Cool, then give us all raises!" Terasaka urged.

"Everyone gets a raise!" Ritsu cheered.

They all cheered, even though they knew it wasn't actually being granted.

"Is he okay? His eyes look weird," Itona explained.

And Nagisa turned to look at Karma as though Ritsu wanted to confirm this.

"The eyes change a bit when possessed," Karma explained. "That's a way for us to tell at least. I don't think it'll be too noticeable by anyone who isn't looking for it though."

"Well Itona noticed it," Kaede pointed out.

"Yeah, but Itona's always been overly observant," Terasaka said messing up Itona's hair.

"Ritsu, make Nagisa say something embarrassing," Kaede encouraged.

"Like what?" she asked.

"Make him confess his undying love for me," Karma suggested and she turned to him.

"I love you deeply, forever and always my Karma," she said using Nagisa's voice, but the tone she used would have told Karma this wasn't Nagisa.

Everyone laughed except for Itona, and still grinning Karma grinned, "Alright come out Ritsu, I think Nagisa's going to be mad enough."

"Okay," she said and floated out of Nagisa's body.

Nagisa's eyes rolled back and he began to fall. Karma rushed forward catching him before he hit the ground. "NAGISA!"

"Nagisa!" everyone hurried around him.

"Nagisa's not breathing..." Kaede gasped.

"He hasn't been since his eyes changed," Itona pointed out.

"Wha..." Karma turned to Ritsu who was floating above them looking terrified. "Ritsu! You weren't letting him breathe?!"

"I'm sorry, I forget sometimes, I haven't needed to do that for awhile," she explained tearfully.

"Damn it!" Karma reached back ripping open his dress and corset behind him and then he started trying to force him to breath and placed his lips around Nagisa's forcing air into him. "Nagisa, c'mon..."

"I'll push!" Kaede explained jumping on the other side pushing onto his chest between breaths.

A mintue or so of this and Nagisa started gasping.

Karma pulled Nagisa up letting him lean back against his chest while he struggled to catch his breath.

"I didn't think about that," he said to him softly. "I should have reminded Ritsu."

"Nagisa, I'm so sorry," Ritsu said tearfully.

"It's fine..." he gasped. "Karma... Can..."

"Yeah," he picked him up. Nagisa felt embarrassed. His dress having been ripped open, it wasn't lady-like at all.

"I'll come too," Kaede hurried after them.

* * *

"We're so sorry Nagisa," she repeated for the hundredth time while she was finishing up redressing Nagisa about ten minutes later.

"Don't worry about it," he answered. "Terasaka was right though, it will be very useful if we can get it mastered..."

Karma was leaning against the wall with his arms folded he looked upset with himself.

Their was a soft knock on the door, "Lady Nagisa?"

Karma answered, "Talk through the door."

"Lady Nagisa has a visitor."

"Who?"

"He says he's your father-in-law."

Kaede was in the process of putting Nagisa's hair in a bun and jumped at the answer. Her eyes looked terrified, and Nagisa tensed up.

 _So... this was the guy_... Karma hadn't yet met Nagisa's father-in-law. He didn't come around often from what he heard, and the few times he had Karma had been away on missions.

Nagisa got to his feet, "See him in," he said.

He turned to Kaede, "Leave the manor."

She nodded hurrying to the door she took Yukiko's arm leading her away as well.

"Karma, go with the girls," he demanded. Don't come back until I come and get you."

"Is this the guy you're so afraid of?"

"Karma please, not now," Nagisa demanded. "Just do what I ask."

"I kinda want to meet this guy."

"You don't trust me."

"I think you should introduce me," he demanded.

"Gakuhō Asano."

Karma spun around upon hearing the voice. A tall man had entered, he was pulling on white gloves. His eyes were narrowed. This wasn't proper, guests were supposed to wait downstairs, and certainly male guests were not supposed to be in a lady's room. Even if Nagisa was acting the part.

"Pleased to meet you," he said softly. "I need to speak with my daughter-in-law alone. You're dismissed."

"I think I'll stay if you don't mind," he responded, but even as he spoke he felt an uneasiness growing his stomach.

"Karma go help the others with chores."

"Nagisa," he turned back.

"Karma I am not asking!" he snapped breathing hard. He couldn't tell if he was doing that because of what happened earlier or if he was starting to panic.

He turned and left without a second glance, but he didn't leave. He went down to the bottom of the steps and hid himself so he could see the door way. he was close enough to hear any noises as well. He felt kind of nauseous ever since meeting that guy. He just carried a menacing air about him. This had to be the guy Nagisa was afraid of before. But he wasn't scared, and he wasn't going to leave Nagisa completely alone with that guy.

A second later, Nagisa and Gakuhō walked out of his room and headed upstairs to where the demon was. Asano had his hand on the back of Nagisa' neck holding it in a vice like grip as he led him up stairs. He followed hiding outside the door to listen in.

"So this is the creature," Asano said.

"Yes," Nagisa answered weakly.

"He's feeble," Asano took his cane and lifted one of the limbs before letting it flop onto the ground. "What the hell went wrong?"

"Why would I know," Nagisa answered. "Shiro was in charge of the summoning."

"So where is your mark?"

"Mark?" Nagisa repeated.

"A mark should have been placed on you body during the summoning. Where is yours?"

That's right, he had gotten a mark...

Karma who was outside the door looked down at his hand. Why did Asano know about the Marks?

"Right, um... Mine's on my stomach..." he answered nervously.

"I see... You know he's weak because you're not feeding him."

"We gave him food," Nagisa answered.

"Idiot," he snapped. "Demons feed off emotion, and that mark makes you his food source."

"What?"

"He feeds off of you," he explained as he reached up and pulled off his tie. "Put your arms behind your back."

"Gakuhō please..." he answered nervously.

"Do it," he was not asking.

Nagisa closed his in defeat, but he also wasn't willing to struggle too much. He brought his arms back and Gakuhō used his tie to bind his hands.

"Well, let's check something then..." he pulled out a knife and brought it swiftly to Nagisa's throat and he jumped.

The creature lifted it's head and looked almost like he was attempting to reach out to them.

"He seems to be reacting to fear... or perhaps it's suffering that feeds him. Either way," he grabbed his upper arm. "Let's go back to your room, we'll see if we can make this demon strong, and I am in the mood to draw."

The creature looked up at him, and he was sure he must be mistaking it, but it almost looked as though he were worried.

"Gakuhō wait..." he stopped before he could finish pleading. Gakuhō wasn't going to listen anyway, even if he begged. It had been a long time since he had to play canvas, and he wasn't looking forward to it.

Karma hadn't been able to see much of what was going on through a crack in the door, but he saw enough. He wasn't going to let him take Nagisa back to the room. He was going to stop him now.

He moved more into the shadows waiting. The door opened wider, but no one stepped out.

Karma frowned. What were they waiting for? He leaned forward ever so slightly and...

Something hit him upside his head. Everything went dark.

* * *

His forehead felt wet, when he reached up to wipe the moisture off it he found he couldn't. His hands were tied to the chair. He looked up, Nagisa was laying on the bed, his hands bound behind his back, the dress was ripped open and pulled down and Gakuhō was straddling him.

"Nagisa..." Karma blinked thinking this might be a dream.

"Ah, you're awake, about time too," Gakuhō said without looking at him. "I was thinking that I may have hit you too hard."

"What are you doing to him?"

"Drawing," he answered simply.

"Drawing..."

Then he noticed he was holding a scalpel. He immediately tried to stand up but he couldn't pull his hands free.

"Don't make noise Karma, this knife is very close to his spine. One mis-cut and I could sever something important and leave him paralyzed, so it would be best not to distract me," he explained. He wiped the bloody scalpel on a cloth by Nagisa's face. Even though it was there, a fair amount was still covering the blankets he laid on.

"Though, it is tempting," he spoke softly and reached up pulling his hair out of the bun it had been in. He noticed Nagisa shudder and turn his head further towards the bed clearly trying to pull away from him, but he had no where to go. "Don't worry, if I screw up and you lose mobility I'll just take you home and make you a permanent ornament for my room."

He heard Nagisa exhale sharply as he brought the knife up to the back of his neck he began cutting.

"Nagisa!" Karma snapped trying to pull free once again, "Get off him!"

"KARMA!" Nagisa shouted at him through gritted teeth and over he folds of the blanket near him he noticed the look Nagisa gave him. Fierce, commanding, mutely demanding his silence and he sat back at the order. Their were very few times he had ever felt helpless, this was one of them.

"He's just trying to protect you," Gakuhō explained softly as he continued cutting. "I have a reason to keep Nagisa alive. I have no such reason for you. Just sit there quietly so I can embellish your lover's features."

Nagisa had shuddered slightly at the word lover. Karma's eyes had shot piercingly upward as well. How did he know?

Gakuhō glared at Karma briefly before turning back to Nagisa, "I wasn't too happy about how you defiled on my canvas. I really don't care all that much if you're fucking him, but I don't want to find anymore unnecessary marks on his body."

"Go to hell," Karma snapped furiously.

"He's a beautiful canvas isn't he, you've explored it, so you know what I mean," he wiped the blood off the scalpel next to Nagisa's head again. "It's just a shame, my artistic vision is so limited by the need to keep him alive. Imagine how beautiful I could make him look if that limiting factor wasn't present... That's alright though, it adds to the challenge."

Nagisa gasped loudly as the scalpel made a rather deep cut down his side. He pulled on the ropes binding him and Karma felt murderous. Never before had he wanted to kill something so badly. How the man was talking though... it sounded like...

"Are you Jack the ripper?" Karma asked furiously.

Gakuhō didn't look up from his work but a small smiled had crossed his face. "Please do not compare me to such a novice. Besides, wasn't Jack the Ripper the sacrificial body used to summon that demon upstairs?"

"Let Nagisa go!" he demanded.

"And still he is talking," Gakuhō frowned. "You don't have a very good command over your servants do you? I could teach him some obedience for you."

"Don't!" Nagisa glared over his shoulder up at him. His eyes looking fierce and threatening in his direction for the first time.

"My I don't think I've ever seen that look. When I convinced your Mother to raise you as a girl I would have thought you'd be a little more feminine and frail in your reactions towards me. But alright, because you asked so menacingly," he teased.

"Touch him, and I'll never forgive you," Nagis snapped, though even through his threat he was shaking.

"I don't think you gave me a look that intense when I murdered your Mother right before your eyes, you must really adore that boy."

"Just hurry up," Nagisa snapped. He wanted this to be over already...

"I'm almost done with you anyway."

"AH!" Nagisa gasped as the knife cut deeply for it's final strokes.

Karma sat there, this was Nagisa's soon to be father-in-law. He had lived with this man when he was a small child, and now he finds out that he murdered Nagisa's mother. What had this man put him through?

"There we go," he stood up removing the blood covered gloves he had been wearing. He grabbed a shot from the side table and took a sip looking down admiring his work. He poured the rest on Nagisa's back. He gasped immediately and Gakuhō grabbed the cloth by Nagisa's face wiping the rest of the scalpel clean on it. He placed both items in his pocket and headed over to Karma taking a much larger knife out of his belt. Karma felt himself pull back immediately and the realization hit him. He was scared. He was scared of this man... Fear was something Karma experienced so rarely that he would very nearly forget what the emotion was in between the times he would experience it.

He used the knife to cut the ropes binding him to the chair and then he pointed it at Karma's throat. "Keep protecting my canvas, I don't want anything to happen to him."

He jabbed the knife into the seat of the chair between Karma's legs before turning to the door.

"Oh, by the way, I came here with staff of my own, and I sent them after yours with one order. _Make them hurt_. I know they're skilled, but I promise you, they won't be able to stop them. You own them Nagisa, I would suggest you save them, if you're not in too much pain that is," he explained and he left closing the door behind him.

Karma pulled the knife from the chair. His heart was racing as he got to his feet and walked over to Nagisa, his hair covered his face and he was still shaking. This display of weakness, infuriated him. But not for the same reason as the other day. Nagisa was stronger than him. To think their was someone who could turn him into this... He wanted to kill that man, he wanted to end him. To make him bleed. To feel the same pain he put Nagisa through, but worse. This display of weakness... Karma didn't blame him. He couldn't, not after seeing that guy in person. He used the knife to cut the tie binding Nagisa's hands. Having his arms bound behind his back for so long left his arms sore and he groaned softly as he brought them up to his side.

His back was completely covered in blood, so much so that he didn't even know what that Gakuhō guy had been drawing.

"Ngh..." Nagisa's hands clenched into fists and Karma placed one knee on the bed and placed the other hand on Nagisa's head.

"I would really like to let you rest," he explained softly. "But..."

"You don't need to tell me," Nagisa sighed and with strain he pulled himself to a sitting position. "Grab the clothes."

Karma hurried immediately over to a small dresser in the corner that held the few male clothes that Nagisa owned. Nagisa pulled off the dress and walked over to Karma, a few more articles of clothing and he was naked. He had no secrets from Karma, especially not anymore. His last secret had been revealed tonight, and it was more shameful and agonizing then he thought it would be. Nagisa pulled on the pants and buckled it quickly, he pulled on the black shirt that Karma held out to him. It burned terribly to pull it on and the cloth scrapped painfully across the wound on his back. But he didn't care.

He took the gun Karma held out to him and placed it in the holster on his belt. Then he went over to his bedside dresser and pulled out another which he started loading. The light from outside was illuminating Nagisa perfectly. His hair almost seemed to be glowing from the red of the sunset. One final cock of his gun and Nagisa shot a glare in Karma's direction.

And Karma felt like melting. His eyes piercing, his glare murderous. It was easily his second most favorite of Nagisa's expressions. The desire to pounce on him and take him right there on his bedroom floor was nearly overwhelming. But he kept telling himself that Nagisa was hurt, and the others were in trouble. Their was no time.

"Watch my back," Nagisa ordered as he headed to the door.

"Always," he answered and they headed downstairs. The first sight to meet them was Kaede laying at the base of the stairs. Nagisa's pace did not quicken or slow down upon seeing her, but when he got to her, he knelt down checking her pulse, and someone walked out from behind the pillar. "I was wondering when-"

Karma had been a few paces behind him and had already grabbed his own gun. Only...

Nagisa didn't turn away from Kaede, but aimed his gun right up at the guy and pulled the trigger. A bang, a flash of red, and the man's face was instantly disfigured before he had finished his sentence. Nagisa stood just as the man's body fell.

"She's breathing, c'mon."

Nagisa headed towards the exit, and Karma stepped over her body to follow him.

The moment they walked outside their a scream from behind him. Nagisa glanced up toward the roof. A man was holding Rinka by her collar at the edge of the roof. He had pulled out a knife which he was holding to her stomach in a stance that expressed he intended to slice her gut open.

"Karma catch her," Nagisa stated simply aiming his gun he did a pretty precise head shot to the man. he let go of her over the edge and the two fell together. Karma had hurried forward the moment Nagisa spoke and caught her before she hit the ground.

"Where is Chiba?" he asked.

"He went after the one's in back," she explained.

"We'll be there soon," he said setting her on her feet, he pulled an extra gun from his boot and handed it to her. She hurried off, and he returned to Nagisa's side as he slit the throat of one of the people who had been in the process of stabbing Isogai. He didn't pause for thank yous, or to ask if he was okay. He turned and started heading towards the barn. He snapped his fingers to get Karma's attention and pointed to the right of the barn.

Karma was so in tune with him that he didn't need to ask what he wanted. He knew immediately what Nagisa was thinking. He hurried off to the right of the barn and climbed up the wood stack and looked down through a trap door. Itona was in a headlock being choked another man stood in front of him brandishing a blade. Terasaka was on his knees having clearly been ordered into submission because they had Itona.

Nagisa emerged in the doorway, expressionless.

He pointed his gun at one of them.

"Well, hello there," one of them said "If you don't want him stabbed clean through I suggest you join your friend on the ground over there."

Without hesitating he aimed the gun lower and shot at the guy's foot missing on purpose. While he got upset and began yelling, it created a distraction for Karma who jumped down from the ceiling hitting the man holding Itona so hard over the head that he was knocked out immediately. Itona fell with him, and Karma did a spinning kick into the other guy sending his gun flying. He fell back and Terasaka rushed forward putting him in a strangle hold right back. Karma aimed another kick dislocating his jaw with this one and Terasaka took up the shovel hanging on the wall hitting him until he too fell unconscious.

Nagisa hadn't moved the whole time watching the fight. But once he saw they were safe he turned without a word to find who was next.

Terasaka had run over to Itona who was gasping and he shouted to Karma, "What the hell is going on? Who are these guys?"

"No time," was the only answer Karma gave him as he followed Nagisa back out into the night.

* * *

A once over around the property and they seemed to have saved everyone and taken out all their enemies. Nagisa and Karma returned to the front doors as their injured comrades converged to that point. They were all injured, some more than others. Recognizing the threat was gone, Nagisa's eyes had returned to normal. The once fierce and murderous glare was replaced with exhaustion and sadness.

"What the hell was all that?" Terasaka asked again.

"We were attacked, it's to be expected with our line of work," Nagisa explained simply.

"Those weren't normal guys, they were skilled. They caught us completely by surprise!" Kaede was leaning on Hinano.

"And now they're dead," Karma explained. "Let's just be happy about that, and train harder for the next time we'll get a surprise attack."

"Seriously, who would order people that skilled to attack us?" Isogai asked.

Nagisa turned heading back to the house, "Let's just go bed, the least hurt of us will keep watch in case more come."

"But..."

"Nagisa tell us what's going on! People that skilled don't attack for no reason!"

"Not today Terasaka," Karma warned before following Nagisa inside.

They all slowly entered in his wake and when they were all in the main hall they heard a noise from the lounge. Nagisa pulled out his gun holding a warning hand up to the others. He walked around pushed the door open aiming his gun. The creature was sitting on the couch wearing robes that had never given him, and he was sipping tea while looking out the window.

"He wasn't a very nice man was he?" the creature asked before sipping his cup once more.

* * *

Gakuhō was in his carriage parked on a hill not too far from Nagisa's residence. He was sitting with a man that appeared to be made of shadows.

"You lost some good men today," the other said softly.

"They don't matter, none of them do. I just hope that was enough to feed the creature," he answered holding the cloth he had wiped Nagisa's blood on, he caressed it, as though he were holding something precious.


End file.
